The Athletic Hockey Show - The hockey world rallies around Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, Mike Rupp on the good, bad and ugly, this week in the NHL

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

On the roundtable, Rob, Jesse and Mike discuss Isaiah Meyer-Crothers powerful statement on bullying, and the Boston Bruins inept handling of the Mitchell Miller signing.Mike Rupp from NHL Network joins to address his criticism of Auston Matthews, the struggles of the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues and the solid start to the season for the New Jersey Devils. Plus we provide an update on the injury to Evander Kane, Jack Campbell's struggles, Sid vs Ovie, Chris Neil jersey retirement, Bruce Boudreau vs Jim Rutherford and Ryan Reynolds' search for a sugar mama or daddy.Get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowSubscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What's going on, guys? Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I am Rob Paisal from CBC Sports, joined as always by Jesse Granger in Vegas. How are you, sir? You're an excellent. How are you, Rob? I'm doing good.

And Michael Russo in Minnesota? Are you in Minnesota? No, I'm in Vegas. You're in Vegas. Yeah, yeah. Also, two guys in Vegas. I'm in Jesse's extra bedroom. Just down the hall.

Oh, man, yeah, and I'm here. No, I'm on a little vacation right now. And after watching Minnesota play last night, one of the worst games, I've seen them play one game after the worst game I've ever seen them play. I was kind of glad Joe Smith was writing this story. Hold on. You're in Vegas on vacation and you still took the time out to talk to us? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Look at you. Yeah, it's probably what we can't see in the screen is like a big. think of Advil and a Gatorade from last night and just. Yeah, that's pretty almost accurate. I want to mention everybody later on in the show, Mike Rupp, Stanley Cup champion, now with the NHL Network going to be joining us. And I'm going to, I'll spoil it right here, guys. I'm going to start the interview talking about the Austin Matthews video that he posted

because that had me and my buddies in stitches. So I can't wait to talk to him. And he set leaves like Twitter into. rage. I think it's awesome. Hard thing to do. It's not. It's absolutely not. And it's so funny just seeing Leaf fans lose their minds

and not listen to what he was saying at times, but we'll get to all of that. It's like they don't have enough stress. Let's just go after Austin Matthews now. Well, I last night, so the Golden Knights played the Leafs last night and I tweeted a tweet that I thought was going to send Leafs Twitter into a rage saying,

this goal song sucks. And it was just totally, agreement. Every Leafs fan on my timeline is like, yeah, dude, you're totally right. I hate it. I was like, all right. I think that might be the only thing that all Leaf fans agree on. Change the damn goal song. It's terrible. It's not enough of it. It is so bad. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's one of those things where you're like, like almost every season do a new goal song. You know what? You got 41 home. Every season pick it. Let the fans, whatever. But just stop doing the same. It's lost. It's luster. Anyways, we got a lot to talk about guys. So let's let's dive right into it.

And I don't know how we go from the Leafs goal song to Evander Kane, but that was a scary injury last night, guys. He gets kind of tangled up with Meyer. Pat Maroon's skate goes right over his wrist. You see him immediately grab his arms, skating to the bench yelling. Big pool of blood. Even Maroon was anytime the other team, the guy who did it is signaling, like, guys, he needs help.

You know, it's a scary injury. I do want to mention not long before we started recording this, he did send out a tweet saying, thank you for all the kind wishes and prayers over the past several hours, went on to thank everyone who was involved in helping them out. He said it would have been far worse and said he won't be back for the next game, but he will be back on the ice suit. Your thoughts when you saw this guys and did it maybe jog your memory

to some other gruesome injuries that you remember seeing that kind of made you go, oh, God, I don't know if I should watch or turn away. Jesse will start with you. Yeah, I mean, my initial thought was, thank God, this is in an NHL game with like medical professionals at the arena. It's, we forget that we're playing this game with knives on your feet, um, sometimes. And it's like, it's almost a surprise that this doesn't happen more often. My first thought was, man, what if this happens, like in beer league, in men's league, in a youth hockey league kids just at the arena and you don't have medical personnel right on staff? Like, thank God.

for Kane, he did, and he was able to get the attention quickly. But man, it's a really, really terrifying injury. You don't know what the worst case scenario was with that. Like I said, I think sometimes we forget how dangerous this game is. Yeah, it really is amazing. It doesn't happen more often. And, you know, I mean, Rob mentions things that it made me think about. I immediately thought of Clint Warchuk. You know, obviously, obviously him was jugular and this was wrist. And but when he got up and I saw the panic on his face and then the blood on the ice, it was scary. And then and then Jay Woodcroft's reaction on the bench and then reading Gene's tweets about how everybody was in the locker room screaming, help, help. I mean, it just thankfully, he is okay.

And it just shows how good the medical teams are both in the national hockey league, but also the first responders that are always had every single game. You know, they always have two sets of ambulances there. and ready to react to things like this. You know, it made me think of the Clint Milar check. And do you remember, you know, Rob, Jesse, the two incidents that happened in Montreal, one with Trent McClary. I think he took a slap shot from Chris Tarion. And then Bill Lindsay also.

Same thing. When I think Bill was playing for the Atlanta Thrashers, I'm pretty sure that he took a puck to the throat in the Montreal Canadiens doctor and training staff. I did a huge story on it actually on Bill Lindsay on this incident and he to this day says that they saved his life. And it's just, man, thankful he's okay because it was an absolutely horrifying thing to watch. Yeah, so it's good to hear that he's okay. He says he will be back. Obviously, going to take the next game off.

We'll see how long that goes. The Edmonds nor others last night did beat Tampa three to two. I shouldn't mention. But yeah, Malarchuk came to me. The Tavaris injury and the playoffs kind of came. to be didn't Richard Zednik get a skate on that? Oh yeah. In Buffalo too.

Yeah. In Buffalo. Yeah. So like Jesse said, like if this is men's league or like I used to on Tuesday nights, I used to play a super late just pickup game where it's just not even like refs or anything, just dudes on the ice playing hockey. I couldn't imagine. I wouldn't know what to do.

If all of a sudden I'm playing that, I wouldn't. You put pressure on it. That's the extent of my medical knowledge. Yeah. someone gets, you know, a skate across their body. Yeah. You know, I could get, I could be getting this wrong, but I don't think I am. I think that the same trainer, pizza, pizza they called him, Jim Pizza.

What's his name, Jeff Domet might know. Jim Pizza telly, I talked to him a couple years ago because he was working for Oliokin and Radic Dvorak at their hockey school down in Florida. But pizza was his nickname. I think that was the same exact trainer that, that was working for the savers when the Richard Zednik thing happened all those years later. Wow. And yeah, I'm almost positive about that.

Oilers, like I said, one, three, two. Jack Campbell was in net, 35 saves. He still is not happy with the way he has been playing this year. In fact, he called it pathetic. That's a direct quote. Luckily for the Oilers, Stuart Skinner's been playing really well. We touched on him last week. But we saw this in Toronto.

Jack Campbell, most goalies are hard of themselves, But Jack Campbell seems especially hard on himself when things aren't going well. And is there a more mental position in sports maybe than a goalie? When a goalie is struggling, it's tougher getting out of his own head than it is doing anything else. And when I saw the word pathetic and that was his quote, I'm like, oh, don't keep doing this to yourself. It only feels like he's digging himself a bigger hole. Yeah. I mean, you've got to have a short memory.

I think being like easier said than done. Right. Right. I think being self-accountable is big. Like, I think if you, if he were playing poorly and in his mind, he really didn't feel like he was playing poorly, that's an issue, like that you need guys to be self-aware enough to know, like, I have to be better than this. But piling on yourself in the media, especially like saying these things outwardly, probably not the best. Like you said, I think not only is it the biggest mental position, but just confidence. It helps every player in every sport. But man, when a goalie's confident, he's challenging better. Like it just, he feels like he's going to make the same. save every time and and you're surprised when it doesn't when when it goes in whereas campbell it feels like he's almost surprised when he has a good game and plays well what he's expecting to to go out there and struggle it's so difficult to switch it around like you said easier said than done it's he's i don't know what he's going to do you need a couple good games to and suddenly you start feeling better it's it's almost like a chicken in the egg thing like you you have to have the good results in

order to build that confidence, you can't just turn it around yourself and just suddenly flip the switch. I'm going to be confident now. Yeah, there's a fine line. I mean, what I do, I do love goalies that take accountability. You know, Flurry does that all the time and things like that, but there is a fine line between, you know, taking the accountability and holy mackerel, are you just right now mentally unraveling in front of our eyes? And it is, it's such a tough, tough position. You know, it's been interesting about some of these teams that have had their, you know, goalie is struggling is is is you know that they have a sidekick that has been saving the day and you know you mentioned skinner in boston all marks been unbelievable um you know there have been uh you know that has

probably been a very reassuring thing for edmonton who's still figuring out ways to win games and you know biding time maybe for campbell to get his act together in his own mind yeah you just kind of want to pat him on the back sometimes it just feels like every time he lets a goal it's not so bad man it's okay everything's all right. Switching gears a bit here. Stop me if you've heard this one, guys. Jim Rutherford's not happy, and he's blaming a certain person without blaming a certain person.

Remember a couple weeks ago on after hours, he had said, we have to play within a stronger structure to make the game easier for all our players. So you say structure, you automatically go to the coach, Bruce Boudreau, who's on the hot seat. Well, this week on Kinnuck Central,

he said, quote, in order for us to become a better team, we have to play with a stronger system and really be more accountable for some of the things the players are struggling with. If we were playing a real strong structure, it would make it easier for our defense to play,

and it wouldn't matter who was on our defense. But right now, we don't have that strong structure, and we need to change the makeup of our defense. And in that same interview, he also again ripped on set, you know, he keeps on alluding to the fact that he thought they had an awful training camp as well. You know, they weren't home. It was weird.

It was like they were on the road all of training camp. I think they were up in Whistler and then constantly, traveling and things like that. I don't know what's going on there. Like, uh, like we talked about this a couple weeks ago. It's like either, you know, let Bruce go down with the ship or put him out of his misery. They're, they're, you know, but don't look now. I mean, they're, they're basically a point out of a playoff spot. So they're figuring this out here. They're not getting great goaltending. We've talked about their blue line to the endth degree, uh, on how they're struggling. And I just

don't understand. It just, it does feel at this point that Jim is just, is just, you know, trolling Bruce publicly. And Bruce is not, I've mentioned this before. Bruce is, you know, from a security standpoint, he, he always, even in the best of times, is pushed by the fact that he always thinks he's going to get fired. And so this is obviously not going to help matters as well. And the entire coaching staff, Mike Yo's there as well. And, you know, it probably, I hate to say this as a media member because we love honesty from the GM and the present of the team that we're covering. But, you know, Jim might want to, you know, sit a couple of these interviews out if he's going to continue.

Well, that's what we love about Jim Rutherford. He's always so honest and tells us exactly there's no cliches. There's no, you know, he just, he puts it right out there. And he's clearly doing that, but it's, it's creating more distractions than putting a lot of pressure on the coaching staff right now. I have a theory. And this is, nobody's told me this. This is no source or anything.

This is just Rob Pizzle's mind bouncing around. One of the reasons we've heard that maybe the Canucks haven't fired him just yet is because they're already paying Travis Green. And they don't want to play Travis Green and Bruce Boudroo and whoever the hell they hire is his replacement. Do you think Rutherford has wanted to fire him, has been overruled by ownership? And this is just his way of giving the middle finger to them saying, I want to fire this guy and you won't let me. So I'm going to say as much as I can in the media to finally force your hand and let me let this guy. who I didn't want to be our coach in the first place go. It would certainly make more, yeah.

I mean, it would certainly make more sense than pretty much anything else because it's like, I don't see how you expect the players to to rally around this coach and, and fit into his system when the GM is publicly saying he's terrible every chance he gets. The other point that I'll make is the line that stood out to me was, if we played better structure, it wouldn't matter what defensemen we have back there. like maybe you should have good defensemen so that you don't have like I feel like that's such an excuse for putting a terrible blue line of players out there that you're you're saying if we played a better structure we it wouldn't matter what defense it wouldn't matter how crappy my defensemen

are we'd be able to play defense anyways it's like or you could have more talented players so that you wouldn't have to do that I don't know it to me they're all just passing the buck it's I think it's not going to fix things like I don't see how this can help. Mike was mentioning like, it's putting more pressure on the coach. I think it's hurting the coach's ability to coach the players. I think it, I don't think it can help the team fit into his system, buy into his system, buy into his beliefs when the GM is talking about the coach this way. Yeah, I mean, it's the complete opposite of what Doug Armstrong did a couple weeks ago, not that what Darg Armstrong has done worked, right? They've lost eight in a row now and they're

getting annihilated every single night. But if you remember, I mean, I think Doug recognized there was some big push and pull going on in that room between players and the coaching staff. And he wanted to put the edict out right there on the players that Craig Barubi was going nowhere. And here, if you're playing for the Vancouver Canucks, you're right away going in that room every day thinking, well, I know I'm not going to be out of here. It's going to be that guy. And I just think it's a bad message to be sending these players. And again, I just don't know what he's trying to achieve. I do, I don't want to know, I don't want to say because it is conjecture that Rob's, you know,

theory is accurate, but it makes a lot of sense because we, you know, let's just, the one thing we do know is that Bruce Boudreau won an extension just for one year. And Jim Rutherford had said, absolutely not. You're coming back on your extension that he didn't even know existed, by the way, until late that that they had that option there. And I think that is something that is pretty obvious that at a minimum, Bruce Boudreau was not going to be the long-term solution in Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alvin's mind for the Vancouver Canucks. And again, and like I said, that's why I made it. I wanted to make it very clear. This is just my, my head rattling around here on it. But it almost reminds me my three-year-old daughter when you say, don't touch that. What is she going to do?

She's going to touch that until you say, you know, it just, it just kind of feels like he's trying to prove a point. And I'm kind of at that point with you, Russo, like, okay, enough. Either he goes down with the ship and, you know, at the end of the year, you say, we're done with Bruce Boudreau or get rid of him because it just seems as though it's getting petty. And like Jesse said, it's tough to coach a team when you're right and the boss keeps saying you're terrible. Right. And I'll say this, Bruce has proven in his, you know, when he's gotten into Anaheim and he's gotten into Washington when he came into Minnesota that he could be the ultimate rallier. And maybe the worst thing in the world here would be happening is like he gets them out of this and then they got to figure out a way or right now do we get rid of them. So like it just, it's it's such a bizarre situation. And that's why I said, look at the standings there. I mean, and the way that everybody else is playing. Like, you know, it's not out of the realm of possibility. that Vancouver could figure things out here and get getting themselves into a playoff spot.

And yet here we are with Jim Rutherford constantly going after the coach. I think if they win tonight, they're in the playoffs, like in playoff position. Well, along those lines, though, you mentioned Doug Armstrong. Well, we fly over to Ottawa and DJ Smith was one of the guys we talked about being on the hot seat. And excuse me, Pierre Dorian decided to hold an impromptu session with the media. Hadn't spoken to his training camp. And it was basically to give his coach a vote of confidence. I think DJ has done a good job.

He's shown he can win. I'm not giving votes of confidence because I think that's foolish. But DJ is our coach. He's going to be our coach. I have faith with how this team plays under DJ. So does that mean DJ Smith just start packing up his office? That's usually that the kiss of death with a GM calls the reporters over to say he's safe a week later.

It's like, ah, we've got something else to say. I'll give you an example of Minnesota. We're in St. Louis once, and Chuck Fletcher comes out and gives Mike Yoa a vote of confidence. And Mike Yo said that he knew he'd be gone in within a week. And he was. Wild Return Home, played a couple games, lost to the Boston Bruins. Mike Ego was out. And that does sometimes seem to be the way it is.

I don't know what's going on with that team. I think that they have all the elements to eventually be a great team. They have a lot of really quality young players there to build on. They do need to just sort of grow and mature together. I mean, one thing out of covering that game in Ottawa a week, week and a half ago, end of October, is they do some really funky stuff coming out of their own end. And, you know, and it's guys that it's not just the young guys. It's the Shabbats that have been around. And so they just need to be coached.

And I don't think that that means that DJ Smith's doing a bad job. I just think that this is a young team trying to grow together. They added a bunch of, you know, you're trying to assimilate guys like Girou and Debrinket and obviously, Talbot's now back, players like that in with these young guys. And I just think it's just the growing pains of a young team that's developing into eventually in the next couple of years being a real, I think, contender in the Eastern Conference. Right. I totally agree. I feel like it's a work in progress. And I feel like, yes, the whole vote of confidence, kiss of death thing is true. But I feel like he almost understood that while he was saying it, it was like, I know you guys are all

thinking. So that's why he's- I know what you're thinking. Right. I know what you think. Like, I, that's why I don't, maybe I'm wrong and I'll look like an idiot. But I feel like this was genuinely him saying, like, like this was a real vote of confidence, not a, this is going to lead to a firing vote of confidence. And, and I think it's because of. Remember, he doesn't, he doesn't have that owner anymore behind him saying, get rid of him. Right, right. You know, so now he is really running the show.

And I think the reason he said that and the reason he believes that is because of all the things Mike just said. It's, this is a, they're in the process of building a good team. They're not a good team. They're, I mean, they, they have the pieces to be, but I think it takes some time. And I think it, like Mike said, they're, they need, they need to be coached up. That doesn't mean they need a new coach. That means maybe this coach just needs more time to coach this team up.

And I think bringing in a brand new coach in the middle of the season with a new system is not going to get this. It's not going to turn this Ottawa Senators team into a playoff team. I think that they need to continue on the process and eventually they can get there. But, yeah, I don't expect him to be fired. And I think that this is an actual vote of confidence, not the kiss of death type. Okay, guys, a couple more things before we go to break and get to Mike Rup. I'm going to call this the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We're 11 to 15 games into everyone's season. And I've got some teams split up into these three categories. Look at the good. You got Vegas, eight in a row. Detroit, second of the Atlantic. New Jersey's just been incredible. Islanders, Seattle, Chicago. I think all those teams have won more games than we thought they would have by this point.

The bad, I mean, the flames have lost five in row. Penguins, four, six, and two. And I only have one team really in the ugly. And that's the blues who've lost eight in a row because we've talked a lot about Vancouver anyway. Which one's the most surprising to you guys? You can pick from either category, good, bad, or ugly? because I will say this. If you had told me 15 games in that the devils would be leading the metro,

the Bruins would be leading the Atlantic, the Jets and Stars will be on top of the Central, and Vegas, top of the Pacific and the whole league, I would have said you're nuts. Russo, what's the biggest surprise to you so far? Well, since I'm a cynical sports writer, I'll take the pessimistic glass half-empty point of view, and I'll go with the ugly, and that's the blues.

I mean, I am shocked at the team that started 3-0 to be this bad. Kairu's been abysmal, Bennington's been abysmal. Thomas is doing very little. The guy, two guys I gave eight-year deals at exactly the same price. There really does seem to be, you know, push and pull between the players and Barubi right now. The fact that they could, that Barubi could have these hard practices where he's dropping F-bomb after F-bomb and Doug Armstrong could come out and unsolicited to sound the alarms.

And then they lose, what, three or four in a row since getting blown out everything. That's an alarm bill. And I, you know, you do have to wonder, I don't, you know, I, you know, I, Trust me, I'm not one of those people that buy into the whole or believe that you always have to react to the whole expiration date theory. But I do think that when you have team that's been around a long time together, it is so hard to be disciplined and play the same style in this national hockey league. It takes such work ethic every single night and there's no gamey games anymore. And I just think that it's so easy to lose your game and then start to have things crumble around you. And I think that is what's going on with the blues right now.

And they are going to have to figure it out. And bad news for them, usually the tonic to all their ills is the Minnesota Wilde. And they don't play them until New Year's Eve. So that's usually a team that the Wilde usually go in there and lose about 8-1, 9-1 on a good night. So that's not going to happen for about seven more weeks. So they better figure it out in that interim. I was going to say the blues, because to me that's the most surprising thing. But because Mike explained it so well, I'll go the opposite.

And I'll go the best team in the league right now, the Vegas goal. the team I cover. I am totally shocked. I thought that this could be a very good defensive team under Bruce Cassidy, but it was going to take a lot of time, installing a brand new system, totally different from anything they've run. And they've been the best defensive team in hockey. They obviously have allowed the fewest goals with a goalie tandem of Logan Thompson and Aden Hill. Like, we thought that was going to be a major issue coming into this year. They have the highest team safe percentage because the defense has played so well in front of them. And then the other surprising thing is, I think if you would have said the Golden Knights are going to have the best record in the league, it's going to

because their stars are just absolutely on a tear. And while their stars have played well, Stone, Eichel, Riley Smith, William Carlson, they've played well. The reason this team is 12 and 2 and they have the best record in the league is because of the depth, which I thought was going to be the downfall of this team. The Golden Knights are the only team in the league with nine players with at least eight points. And they're the only team in the league with eight players with at least 10 points. They are getting scoring all the way down the lineup, which is like it's crazy.

This team, if you would have told me they were going to be good, I would have been a little surprise, but they're doing it in the exact opposite way that I would have expected, which is great sign for this team, because I still think the star players have more to give. I think Jack Eichel is starting to come around. He's starting to dominate games the way the Golden Knights hoped he would when they traded all those first round picks, and he's making 10 million a year. He's starting to look like that player. But in the meantime, while he's, while he's kind of on that runway, getting up to it, while Mark Stone is still trying to figure out his way after having back surgery, they've really been carried by a strong fourth line. To me, they have the best fourth line in the league right now.

So not only is it surprising the Vegas is good, it's surprising how they're doing it. It's incredible. That Mark Stone Pass last night to Ikel was just ridiculous too. I mean, that guy's hand sometimes just blow my mind. So yeah, I'm with you on Vegas. To me, that's the one that just kind of like eight wins in a row, 12 and 12. And two start. I don't care if you're the 84 Oilers. A 12 and two start is something that makes you kind of go, what is going on there. So the good, the bad, and the ugly. No good way to transition to this, guys. We can't go to break without talking about the Mitchell Miller situation that unfolded the saga, fiasco, embarrassment, whatever you want to call it. Just a real quick timeline for any of our

viewers who have been hiding under a rock for the last week. If you remember, he got drafted in 2020 by the coyotes. They relinquished those draft rights when a story was published about how in middle school, he and a classmate were convicted in juvenile court for assaulting and bullying, a black classmate who also had developmental disabilities, was accused of, you know, many racial slurs. And the Bruins went and signed him anyway. And there was just huge public, you know, outraged from not only the fans and the league, but Boston Bruin players themselves, which to me was the biggest shock. I was watching some of those interviews.

I thought, well, how is this guy going to come into your dressing room? Two days later, the Bruins cut ties in Cam Neely, basically, and I'm paraphrasing, obviously, said, oops, we dropped the ball, we didn't do our due diligence. A lot's happened over the last seven days, guys, and I'm going to read a little bit of a statement in a second, but I want your opinions on this craziness and how we even got to this point. Jesse, we'll start with you. It's an absolute joke that they signed him, and I think that it's one of those cases of they didn't want to know.

I think it was when they say, oh, we didn't do our due diligence. It's like, well, you could have. It was very easy. We saw the statement that his mother put out. We saw the statement that he put out. If you would have asked either of them, it would have been very clear that you shouldn't sign this player. But when they say, oh, we didn't know all that. It's like, well, because you didn't want to know.

You didn't reach out to them. You didn't talk to the people you should have before doing it. If you would have, it would have been very clear to you as it is to everyone right now that you probably shouldn't assign that contract. I think it was a case of, well, what we don't know won't hurt us. Let's just sign it. And then they dealt with it afterwards, which has obviously been a mess. Mike, what do you think? Yeah, I just never cease to amaze me that the idiocy of some front offices.

And the people that run, I mean, these are billion-dollar businesses now. And yet you put these guys in place that just are like, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm I'm trying to be respectful but also struggling to find. I don't want to just call them a bunch of idiots and morons and things like that, but that's how I feel. I just don't understand how you didn't see this shitstorm coming. How tone deaf do you have to be in today's day and age, this new climate and this culture that they are trying to, you know, create in this sport after years of being archaic. And yet here you go about and you sign a kid that clearly the Arizona coyotes felt eventually

they had to rescind the rights to. And then you go and just do this while the team is in Toronto on a 10-1 streak, it just, I mean, none of it made any sense. And I'd just love to know, I mean, me as the reporter, I would just love to know how this first came about. I mean, they were obviously talking to his camp for a while. Okay. That is very clear. That's been made pretty clear the last couple days. But who came up with the initial idea? Who thought this was a good idea? Like, the fact that Cam Neely is trying to pass the buck to Don Sweeney and Sweeney's clearly trying to go to the opposite way to, you know, like it's been Cam Neely's quotes on press releases and things like that, which is very odd. I just don't understand how nobody thought like, hey, by the way, I think

Cam Neely comes out and it's like, we have to get to the bottom of who didn't call the family. You're the president of the team. Like, I just, it just, it blows my mind how tone depth this is. And after, I have another point on second chances, but Robert, I, I, the one thing, I think that we should need to read Isaiah's statement. Yeah. So that was what I wanted to get your initial impressions first. I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's quite long, but the Hockey Diversity Alliance tweeted this. It was sent directly to them.

And it's from Isaiah Meyer or others who asked them to publish this. And it's on Twitter. And I'm not going to lie, guys, it's a tough read. It's sad. It's one of those ones where you start reading and you instantly want to give Isaiah a hug because no human being on earth should go through some of the things that he went through at the hands of Mitchell. He says, I am Isaiah Meyer Cruthers. I would like to make a statement. I've been bullied since the first grade. There were not many black kids in my school. I was called

Brownie and N-word in which I'm not going to obviously say it on the show. Kids said my black mom and dad didn't love me. And that's why I had white parents. Mitchell used to ask me to sit with him on the bus. And then he and his friends would punch me in the head. This happened at the whole time. He went on to say that when he wanted to sit next to them, sit at their table at school, he had to say that I am an N-word. Even when he got suspended, he mentioned that, you know, Mitchell's friends just pretty much took up the slack and continued doing it. And he has since, like, tried texting them. And I think that's the number one thing for me here, guys. all the evidence I've seen throughout these, the investigations of all this story have showed

that Mitchell Miller absolutely had no remorse. And that's the problem. If he shows no remorse for his actions, not that, like, to me, all of this shows an underlying problem. This isn't a one-time mistake sort of thing. And I know you're going to touch on this, Rousseau. But when you feel the need to send, you know, a letter to all three, teams before the draft saying how sore you are, but you never apologize to the victim.

You never apologize to the victim's family. You never apologize to anyone else. That's who I feel for. The victim's family having to pick up the newspaper and read that the player who tormented and ruined their son's life has signed an NHL contract. And then, you know, the Bruins have said they've parted ways, but they haven't terminated the contract because you know what's going to happen. happen, guys. The PA is going to jump out and say, whether you like this kid or not,

a contract was signed and nothing's changed since that contract is signed. So are we telling me that this kid that I'm reading horrible, horrible, horrible things about is just going to keep getting paid? It's been an embarrassment. Like, for lack of a better term, what the fuck are we doing here, guys? Like, what is going on? Like, it's been bothering me all week. And I just sometimes can't even find the words to talk about it. Yeah, they're not going to be able to just terminate his contract. I mean, that is clear. You know, they're going to have to, I mean, the easiest, quickest way to just get this done is to try to go to the PA and Mitchell Miller's camp and try to work out a settlement. Or just, you know, get him to the offseason and buy him out there for, I think, since he's less than 26, one-thirds.

So that would be the way to do it. You know, and, you know, teams have done this before where you say, all right, we're going to pay you the rest of the year. Go home, but you're not going to Providence. just go home, we're going to pay your minor league salary. That could happen and that's probably the easiest way that could happen. I talked to the PA about this yesterday, actually. But on second chances, this is the one thing because, you know, I obviously, you know, I had a couple, you know, when I caught up to everything that was going on that night, I was fuming just reading all this and I threw out a bunch of tweets. And then you get the, you know, the almost expected, you know, when does it end?

Does his kids, you know, should his entire life be ruined because of a mistake you made when you were a child? Don't we all deserve second chances? Yes, yes, we do. Okay. But first of all, playing in the National Hockey League is not just a given right. Okay. It is a privilege. There's certain, you know, ethics that should be in place.

And you don't just put those, put anybody in the National Hockey League. And what you did years ago sometimes does have repercussions. But the other thing I want to say about second chances is that he wasn't five years old. He wasn't six years old. This was not a child undeveloped. I don't know about you, but when I was in eighth grade, when I was 14 years old and ninth grade, which was the age that this allegedly happened, and it apparently happened for years, I knew the difference between right and wrong.

I knew what words not to say. I know we're all, we have different intellects, we're all raised differently. There's all sorts of factors that get you to a point where you are at a certain age, the way that you think about right and wrong. But I knew not to take somebody's, take candy and put in a urinal and then force feed it to somebody. It is it is just unconscionable to sit there and just pretend that this was just a mistake that he made at 14 years old. This was six years ago. Okay. Like like this is this is not, I mean, this is just insane to me, the people that just think that this is one little mistake that

he made when he was a child. And sorry, the guy does not deserve to be in the National Hockey League. It's plain and simple. I totally agree with both of you. And I think Rob brought it up. It's a great point that if this was a one in one time incident, even at 14, it was ongoing. I agree with Michael that like at 14, you should be a little more responsible for what you're doing than when you're eight. But also, even at 14, if this was a one-time thing, he was at a party and he was mean to this kid, it's like, okay, like I could, we all do dumb shit when we're 14. But to do this every day for a long period of time shows that this was not a, oh, I was a dumb kid. I made a mistake. Like, to me, that shows that this is a pattern of behavior. This is how he feels. This is how he is. And I agree with

Michael that should it ruin his whole life? No. But playing in the NHL is the ultimate, like, privilege of being the best hockey players in the world. Like, these are the best hockey players in the world. These are the role models that kids look up to. Everyone doesn't get to just play in the NHL. Yeah, I just, again, just come down to, like, what were they thinking? Yeah. Like, I mean, well, I mean, is Mitcher, is, is he Bobby Or? Like, what was the point of, like, it just, it made, I just blow it away how stupid this whole thing was and how it was so self-inflicted. This wasn't even as if all of this came out in between signing and parting ways. I had a guy in my men's league team.

We were talking about this in the dressing room. He literally goes, if we all knew this stuff, how the hell did the Bruins not all know this stuff? And I'm like, exactly. Like that's the exact point. Like all we're really finding out now is even more gruesome details. But even the stuff we didn't know between signing and and parting ways was bad enough. And it was an ongoing period. So something needs to be done.

I'm sorry. I don't accept the oops. I don't accept the we didn't do our due diligence. I don't accept the, it was way worse than we thought. It was bad to start. And here we are. Now this person who's done horrible things for a long. period of time, whether he's at Providence in the NHL, at home or not, he's getting a paycheck

every two weeks. And I don't like it. But yeah, so, I mean, all the power to, and I really do. I know Cam Daly said this quite a few times during the press conference where he apologized to, you know, to Isaiah's family. Yeah, a little late. I, I, you got to feel for, for that whole family and having to re go through all this all over again. So, you know, this also to me epitomizes again, a problem in a lot of front offices is that you have these head honchos, whether it's Sweenier or Neely, and then you have a bunch of support people that are, you know, should be

on the same level of them that don't feel comfortable just saying, can we rethink this? Let me take devil with that. Let me play devil's out. I mean, you know, there are so many front offices that just have yes men and yes women and just sit there and just whatever the GM says, it goes. And I just don't understand how nobody with the

Bruins that we know of. You know, said, Cam, Don. Let me just tell you real quick, like, can we just do a quick Google search so you might know what other stuff might be? I mean, it's amazing to me. No, I think that's, I think that's a great point because a lot of, you know, it's tough even for us. You know, I'm sure we've all disagreed with a boss and wanted to be like, what are you doing here? But when your boss just happens to be, you know, in a lot of cases, you know, people who are very prominent in the hockey world as far as even when in their playing days, it's tough to kind of go, guys, like, look at this. You know what I mean?

And I'm sure in that meeting, even if someone did, Russo, I'm sure the brass were like, ah, he's 14. Everybody deserves a second chance. Well, not this kid. Anyways, I'm sure this is not the last time on this show we're going to be talking about this. I'm sure it'll come back up when even the league who Gary Bettman came out and said, he's probably never going to play in the league because they didn't like the signing either. We'll have to wait to see how this thing shakes out.

How the show is going to shake out is Mike Rupp's going to join us. after the break, so don't go anywhere. Trust me, it's going to be fun. All right, guys, our next guest, of course, is a Stanley Cup winner from back in 2003. Not only that scored the cup clinching goal, which I'll concede. That's probably number one on his career highlight list.

I think number two happened this week when he basically won the internet with his video describing what happened with Austin Matthews. I was ecstatic because I watched a video about 10 times. Sent it to my buddies. We talked about it. And as we're talking about it, I get a text from our producer Jeff saying, hey, Mike Rupp's coming on the show this week.

I'm like, fantastic, because I can't wait to talk to about this and so much else. Mike, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me on, guys. Yeah, no, it was, I didn't think that, listen, this is, I started messing around doing a couple of these things now. And then I got this, you know, just fumbling around on my, on my iPad. I found this app that it's really good. It's got a nice little, nice little rewind. and wheel on it where you can get some stuff.

And it's generally used for trying to do little breakdowns when I'm not working. I just, I don't know, I just find that that's like when I find something I'm passionate about or something and I'm on the couch watching games like we all do, I think it's cool for the fans to like get the instant, you know, bang. Like even if I'm wrong or right, whatever the circumstances, I think that those are things I know that I eat up and consuming other sports. So I want to try to provide that. And so this was just that.

I went to bed. I sent that thing out like at 11 something at night, went to bed. And I woke up in the morning and my phone just blowing up. Like, oh, okay. I guess this is what happens when you talk about the Toronto Maple Leaf. Yeah. I'm sure. I'm sure.

Sorry, I checked like right before we started recording this pod. And there was 1.2 million views on that video alone, which I thought was just fantastic. I'll let Russo get this question in a second, but I do want to ask you, you know, because I always tell young broadcasting students, they always ask for advice and I say, the one thing you got to remember

is you're always going to lose out to a former coach or player because they have insight that we just don't know. And that's what I loved about the video. Like, I love the fact that you were talking to us about the guys in the room are no longer going to accept this.

So just as a guy who's been there, a guy who won a cup, a guy who's played with some of the greatest players of all time. I mean, what really just struck you during that whole thing made you say, you know what, I got, I got a, I got a, I got a, I got a vent a little bit about what I'm seeing. Well, let me vent with this first off,

because I would say to be, to be completely transparent of everything that I saw, I would say it was 6535 as far as people agreeing with it. And then there's quite a few who didn't, you know what I mean? But the part that irked me afterwards, and I know, I know this will get might go on for sure. and I'm sure both of you guys as well. Stop putting words in my mouth. I did not say Austin Matthews should fight. I don't ever want to see him fight.

I don't ever want to see superstars fight. That's not what I'm saying. That's not what I said. That became the thing where everybody's just like, well, do you think Austin should drop the gloves there? I don't think you should drop the gloves there. All I was saying in those moments, though, it's like, you know, it went from that.

And then the other part, too, that you mentioned, Rob, is like, I didn't say his teammates, don't like them. They probably love them. I don't know that dynamic. All I'm saying is that will wear thin over time. And so I'm watching it. And so the scrum happens. And I'm watching it through a couple times. And what tip me to kind of dig into it more was Austin gives that smirk. And we've seen that smirk many times. And that's fine. I kind of like the smirk in general because it's going to aggravate and antagonize the other team. And that's, you know, that's kind of hockey sometimes, right? And I've certainly been someone who's done that in my career in a much lesser of a star scale.

But, you know, you try to push the other team's buttons. So that's what got me going on it. But then I was like, I washed it back, wash it back. I'm like, he kind of like kept this thing going and he didn't want anything to do with it. And I'm like, okay. So I'm like, all, you know, I've seen a million scrums. I've been involved with them. I've watched them. And this is the part too that ever, and this is, you know, God bless. Twitter. What does that guy know about scoring 60 goals and managing this and that? Well, let me tell you what I know. And this will let me event. What I do know is that I was a role player, that I was, I have tons of gratitude. Everybody's giving me an opportunity to live out my dream and play in the league. I certainly was not as skilled as all these other guys.

But you think for one second, all the great players that I played with that I was in a sponge in talking to them, watching them, seeing how they manage situations. I mean, you can sit there and look at, I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, we're all can break it down as players at different times. But I mean, I've been so fortunate to watch probably 10 Hall of Famers that I've played with in my career that I can see how they manage things. They showed me how to win. People are like, oh, what does this guy know about, you know, yes, that the cup that we

won, I was in great hands. I didn't win the cup for the New Jersey Devils. I scored a timely goal, you know, but I watched those guys, how they manage things. I know what it looks like for a championship team, what it needs to feel like in the room. I've seen Sidney Crosby navigate through these things that Austin Matthews navigating through. My thing is, you cannot, you cannot act like this will take care of for you if you're the one initiating it. And my problem with that is I love that he went after connecting me in the corner. I like that.

I don't, I actually think one of the best things I've seen from Austin Matthews was, and people would probably disagree with this to some degree, taking Dahlin's bloody head off in the outdoor game. I thought that was one of the best things because Austin, my point is when he reacts like this, the line is getting longer and longer and longer for people that want to challenge Austin Matthews. Because, you know, and so he, you know, in this game, I guess my point is this Toronto Maple Leafs team. and it's certainly a team that the sky is falling all the time in Toronto. They're a talented, talented team.

They're a team that Austin scored 60 goals last year and he was the MVP hands down. He's on the top. You can argue three players in the world right now. I love what he brings. This group needs to find another level. And we can't measure this group until the playoffs. And all I know is that if that was a litmus test of is anything different, I would say no, nothing's different.

I think if you've got an A on your sweater, you need to lead your group, inspire your group. And if you're going to start a little bit of some, you know, a little ruckus, then you better be involved with them and not stand there and smile. And that image that I saw when I did that video and I had that little scrubber on my iPad where it's showing a shitstorm move this way. And there's one person just standing in there staring down at nothing. that's alarming to me. Are you in this with them or are you not?

I thought it was a great moment for Mark Giordano, Michael Bontein, Kelly Yarncrow, Rasmus Sandine, because we've been questioning that for a long time. That's been answered. Those guys, I love how they responded. Be in it with them, man. Be in it with them. And in a whole other conversation to that, if Austin Matthews who's ever did drop the gloves, I'd been in the locker room when Sid did it.

I can't even tell you what it does to the locker room. I can't even tell you. But if he doesn't want to do it, I don't want him doing it. I don't want him to get hurt. But like, inspire this team. You have to leave. That to me was not an example of leadership.

And that's kind of why it went off. Yeah, I found the whole video, I mean, fascinating, just from your perspective. And again, I covered you. I know how you think. And, I mean, it really was fascinating. I don't think it's something that the average fan or media member would even notice that basically this guy started World War III on the ice then was the only one to not take part and let his teammates do this.

the dirty work. And, you know, what if one of his teammates gets hurt in that situation that he caused and things like that? Um, you know, my, my biggest question actually, because again, knowing you, you mentioned this thing that you have on your iPad. How long did it take you to make this video, to narrate this video? Because I thought, I mean, the pausing, the, the, the, highlighting on every single thing that, you know, his, his facial reactions, everything. I thought it was genius. Again, whether you agree with you or not, I mean, it was just like, perfect commentary from somebody that, you know, you would, you would think would have years and years of broadcasting experience?

So the, it actually didn't take long at all. It's, the hardest thing actually is trying to consolidate it to around two minutes because it'll cut it off. It cuts off when I, when I get that and I turn it over to then Twitter, I got like a, I think that one's maybe just over. It's like a two minute, five seconds. There's something that I don't know what the, Rimer, reason. is, but when I've done it, doing other breakdowns, it won't, it won't put it on Twitter.

So I think that's the hardest part is that was probably take two because I did take one and I was happy with it, but then it was, I looked at the time. I'm like, oh, I'm over. Damn it. So I didn't just go do it again. But as far as it, it's, it's cool. And that's what I love about it is because when you have that little scrubber dial, you can just kind of go back and forth, kind of boomerang things, look at things.

And it was funny, though, because the first time I did it, and I still do it now. And I think it's just from doing it on TV. Jameson Goyle, who I work with, always chirps me. He's like, hey, your little breakdowns that you're doing at 1130 at night on your couch, who are you talking to when you say, bring it back? Bring it back a little bit. I'm going, I'm having my own calls to the edit room, but I'm the edit room. So I'm like, yeah, I don't know.

I think it's just the way I do it. So I'm like, let's bring that back a little bit. But, you know, it doesn't take long. It's fun. It's funny how many people reached out to me and were like, hey, how did you do that? And I gave the app name and it's whatever. I think this is stuff that is, again, whether it's me or anybody else, I love this stuff. I want it as soon as I have it.

I don't want it to be a produced thing that we think about overnight. Now we break down 1004. Let's get reactionary stuff. I might be right. I might be wrong. But these conversations, I want it, I want it straight from the source, like from what you're feeling in that moment. Great, great.

Yeah. I totally agree. To transition to around the league, we mentioned. obviously you won a Stanley Cup with the Devils, played the majority of your career there. I think they're one of the biggest stories around the league right now. My biggest question is, how legit do you think this team is? I mean, we've seen teams start out well and fizzle as the season goes on. I guess how legit do you think they are?

And what do you like most about what they're doing in New Jersey right now? They're not a New Jersey Devils type team. I don't think we've fought that of them over the last number of years. I just think for so long since this team came into the league, It's been a boring team. I mean, listen, the Minnesota Wild War reviewed that too. And it took a while for them to shed that, right? And it's just like you get labeled that.

And this is the furthest thing from it. I would say as much as we watch and tune in to see Connor McDavid play, it's must watch TV for the casual fan of fan that's, or somebody that's not even a fan of hockey. Just, hey, I tune in when Edminton's played. You're going to see some stuff, you know, and Leon and all that good stuff. don't have the big extravagant name with

the New Jersey Devils at this point but I would say that is really fun hockey to watch for a casual fan or if some fans have an off night from their team playing tune into a Devils game like they play it a unique clip the way they zip the puck around

sustainability probably not to this level that they're at right now but I think what we've seen you can't ignore and there should be a team that probably should be in the hunt there come playoff time as being a bubble team. The goaltending will have to stay strong because that's been something that's been good for them. And I don't know if we were able to even like Seattle, New Jersey last year, how do you really assess the teams because the goaltending was so bad?

So they're finally both teams getting goaltending. They look pretty good. So I will say this though. My biggest concern long term for this devil's team and I like their future, I don't know what you guys think about this. I think the way these last two negotiations have gone with Jessica Bratt and the way he's come out this year and played, he's going to have to get paid. He's an RFA again. I want to ask you guys this, because I love what you guys have been. Can you sign him long term big dollars and have Hughes, key share, and Brat eating up all that salary cap and all being under six foot?

be like that that to me i don't know if if that's the one thing that's got me on this team in the future how are they going to handle jester bratt are they going to give him what he deserves and what he will probably earn in the open market if he does like what are you going to this team needs size in their top six to get to that next level i don't know that's a small that's a small talented group but come playoff time i don't know if i like their build you know Let me ask you about another team that you might not like their build, and that's the Minnesota Wild. You know, they, I almost feel like you were just talking about them minus the winning right now. They are, I mean, they just, it's not even that just that they're, Mike, that I was, let's let me start this.

I was talking to a former NHL coach the other day that told me there's one team in the league that he doesn't even recognize from last season. That's the Minnesota Wild. He felt that they were one of the best wall teams in the league last year, one of the best North South teams in the league last year. and this year he's seeing a team that is not just undersized but soft on the walls, lacking depth up and down their lineup. Obviously, they're very, very banged up, undersized on the back end. What is your make of this team? Because it just, it does feel like this is a very, very different feel than last season,

knowing even that they lost the Fialas and players like that. Yeah. This is the part that I think some teams are going through. I think Minnesota is one of them. I think back to when Torch was coaching. And Torch, I didn't have them that long, but, man, I wish I had it had my whole career. The mental side of playing in the NHL is so big.

And, you know, I'll speak, I'll speak candidly the way Torch would speak to us to some degree. But he would say, he would say stuff to us. So, like, we made it, you know, in 2012, we went to Eastern Conference Finals, lost in the Delos. And we were cruising through. We were present up for the president's trophy with Vancouver the entire season and going in the playoffs and we make it through each round. And then, you know, we lose a couple games shy to stand the cup finals and come back the next season. The one message that he always says to us, I think it's really, really important is you haven't done a goddamn thing is what he would say.

You haven't won anything. You haven't accomplished shit. like don't let it get good to you. That's John Torto. We've probably all heard those things from him. And it's so true because what made Minnesota so unique last year, they played with a chip on their shoulder. Like they were a tough team to play against,

and they were from the grief line through, it doesn't matter how big and how small. Like, they competed hard and they can play multiple ways. I just wonder, did they think they arrived? Do they think that they've accomplished something? New York Rangers looked the same way. You know, the Rangers played above expectations.

They just lack that bite a little bit this year. And I don't mean bite like physicality and grit. Like I just mean just going out and, you know, I don't know, let's use even Vegas example. That was Vegas as M.O. when they came in the league. The last maybe two seasons, I feel like they lost that. They look like that angry team again, like that team with a chip on. their show that yeah they got something to prove that's the thing and mike you you watch every second

of them you would know better than me but from my you know perspective um they just don't look like they have that same that same drive this year and but then there's also some of the natural things that come to play when you have career years from players it's going to be tough you need something else you need somebody else to pick up the slack so the example like i mean kevin fiala they had to do that. All right. That's gone. That's a hole in the line.

Who's going to pick that up? You know, Zook and Kiroil were amazing. The chemistry that they came through with Hartman last year. And then, all right, well, you can't expect that just to automatically be back again, right?

Like, what else is going to happen here? And, you know, you had great Erickson-Nack, awesome seasons. Felino, like, there was some really good storylines.

And right now they're all lacking, it seems like, right? So it just don't have that edge. I'm not willing to throw in the towel on these guys. You know what's kind of funny? And I don't know what you think, Mike. I want to ask you this too.

It's like I actually feel like the guy who carried on last year into this year the most, probably Matt Boldie. Like he, to me, at least, seems like he looks a little bit like what he was last year. I don't think there's many guys on that roster that do. Yeah, no, you're exactly. I mean, and this was my concern coming into the years that so many guys had career years. you just feel like their regression is going to be natural. I didn't think that six guys would regress.

And they have a couple guys playing their worst hockey that I've ever seen them play. And a couple guys that were given unbelievable opportunities that have literally done nothing right now, like Tyson, Jost, and Sam Steele. So, I mean, it's just going to be interesting how Bulgarian navigates this whole situation, Mike. Yeah, no, it is. It is. And I was talking about this the other day, too. And I know that I talked to you about it before as well.

But we all know, we all know that they need entry level guys thriving. That that's, that's, they need this for the next three years or whatever. And so this, these cap issues with, with those buyouts kind of resolve. This is a tough part because Marco Rossi is the singular guy on that roster that has the skill that they need to step up. But it's not, you can't rush players. You can't manufacture your players to adjust. Like every player adjust at their own speed. The problem is Minnesota doesn't have time for that.

You know what I mean? Like they need Marco Ross to do it now. And it's almost unfair to him. But at the same time, like you said, players are getting opportunities and you've got to take advantage. But they're in a really tough spot because they need those younger players to be impactful and play outside their boots a little bit. Switching gears a little bit, Mike. One of the games tonight always jumps out to me anytime you got the pens in the caps. Crosby versus Zovachin, 63rd time.

I always watch it. I always love it. 2005 is a long time ago. These two guys are still getting it done. You know Sid, you played with Sid. I've almost come to start just collecting Sid stories because I find him fascinating. We only see the guy on the ice who puts up points and then, you know, gives kind of, let's be honest, cliche answers in interviews. But I love hearing behind the scenes, whether it's his superstitions or just things he's done as a captain.

alluded to it earlier when he fought the room went nuts. Give us a Sid's story maybe that we haven't heard from behind the scenes that would just kind of, you know, let us know what kind of guy's sit is that we don't get to see when the mic's on. Well, I think what we do see, a lot of it is real with them, but then I agree with you, the answers are going to be, you know, you know it. Pucks in deep, give 110 percent, good bunch of guys in the room. We know he's going to say that, but we know that's not Sid in the dressing room, right?

no no he's he's not he's uh i guess the biggest thing that i would say with sit is he's a big kid he is um now we used to play geez uh it wasn't call of duty it was kind of the game back that we play on our ps vitas or psps whatever they were at the time we'd always play like video games he is very into military movies documentaries he's in all that stuff he loves it uh so i'll give you i'll give you a It's said. So the one time, so we, we would play, I think on HBO, the 24-7 for the Warring Classic showed us playing that. And we would play.

And it was just funny because when I got there, they're like, do you have a PSP, a PlayStation portable or whatever? I'm like, yeah, I got one. They're like, hey, get so calm. We got this game. We got going. So I remember at the time, it was like, it was Flower, Max Talbot, Rusong Fedatenko, Sid, myself, Jay McKee,

I'm missing some. We had about eight guys, eight or nine guys that all had these games. And we go on the plane and you can play like a local match, right? And we'd be playing. We talk so much shit. It was so much fun on those planes, you know, and just going and whatever.

And then we'd have like weekly rankings we would put out. Guys would get so angry because we'd have like a guy, you know, someone put out the weekly rankings and just a prod people. But anyways, I remember one time we were like, We got to whatever city is short flight, and it was like, hey, let's play some more like we were into it. Like, let's play.

Let's go online and play. We can create our own clan and we can play online against someone. Like, all right, cool. We're like grown, man. We all go to one hotel room and we're sitting on the floor. There's like guys like sitting in the bed. Like we all have our little things out. We hook to the, into the Wi-Fi, the hotel.

And we started our own clan. And we called it like, they called it. I think it was just pit or something like that. So we're online playing. And there's this, you can hear the voices and they're like, they're like kids. And it may just feel so stupid. There's kids that are dominating us playing this game. And I'm sitting there.

I'm like, I'm like, start to look at him. Like, can you imagine what like a fan or somebody would like realize where they're playing? And I started looking at all of our tags, our gamer tags. I was Rapper 17. It was Tanger 58. It was flour. I'm like, good Lord. Like, we couldn't hide this at all.

Sid was saving Private Ryan 87. So, like, there's all these different things. And I just remember, like, these kids just dominating us. But, like, that's the stuff. Sid would sit there. Like, he was just a big kid away from the ring. You know, you want to get out on the road. He'd go and get a real competitive game of mini golf somewhere,

get guys together before dinner and go do that. The one thing I will say with Sid that's incredible, and this is just how he works at everything. He wants to be the best at everything. We, Sean Casey, you know, former the mayor, former MLB player was setting up batting practice for us with the pirates. And we want to do something on the side. We don't really want like media or any cameras there. We just wanted to kind of go and do BP. So we're setting up BP and we had like seven or eight guys that we're going to go do it.

And so Sid calls and Sid knows from talking like I played competitive basketball and baseball grown up and Sid played competitive baseball as well. And Sid was like, he calls me up the day before and he goes, hey, when was the last time you swung a bat? And this is, you know, I'm just probably 29 years old. It's sound like, oh, actually swung a bat. I probably haven't swung a bad in 12 years, you know. And he's like, let's go to the batting cage.

let's go the batting cage and like hit a few before tomorrow. We might not ever do BP again. Let's get in a few, a few licks. I'm like, all right. So we just go to like this north of the city. We go to this mob and pop place and we come walking in. And certainly I could go in no place like that. And Pittsburgh's pretty good with recognizing players, but like no one's going to really

bog me. Hey, you know, good game last night, whatever. Sydney Crosby literally can't go anywhere. Like he can't. He does his Christmas shopping on the road in Eric. Arizona because you can go to a mall there. Maybe people won't notice them. You know what I'm saying?

So we go to this place and we got like two rounds of quarters before everyone's texting and calling and then people just come and they're watching. So we got in some, we got in some hits. We went the next day for BP and it was like Sid's in there and smooth left hand swing. Honestly, a lot like little Ken Griffey, like the real smooth left hand swing. He hits one. he hits one out of the literally out of the stadium

one hops it out of the stadium into the river like it hits the very top down right so PNC Park right field is pretty short hit the top one of the top steps and bounce out of the stadium and just I'm good you know and it's just the guy is awesome at everything and he wants to be the best of everything

he doesn't even want to be mediocre because he hasn't swung a bat in 10 years he's going to make sure he's on point. He was the best hitter that day. Absolutely fantastic stories. This stuff reminds me. So like, I've been talking to a lot of the Golden Knights players this year. And they're mentioning how much better the vibes are off the ice.

And just these stories you're telling me, like, how much of that impacts on the ice stuff? Like, I heard stories last year, the Golden Ice were going through injuries. They just felt like the vibes weren't great off the ice. They were missing some guys. And I feel like they kind of attributed that to the struggles. Obviously, you're missing big guys. That was a big part of it. But you've been on so many teams.

I guess do the vibes off the ice impact on the ice? And how do you think that works? Yeah, I think it does. I think it does. I actually think that's a big reason why the Calgary Flames haven't been able to find their game that much this year because they had to play so many home games to start. And they had a lot of big important pieces that have changed on that team. I think it's important to get on the road, have some fun.

You know, you find your groove and your guys you hang out with and just kind of create all that stuff. But it's important to have fun and to have, we play a game, a game for a living. And it's a game that we dreamt a plane when we are kids. You can't lose sight of that. If you're losing sight of that, you're not performed at your best. And I remember just when I went to Pittsburgh, it was actually a good example for me that, you know, we certainly won in New Jersey on a regular basis as far as, just consistently were a pretty good team in making the playoffs. It wasn't fun all the time.

You know, like, it was, we weren't, we had, it was very strict. And I think that helped us. When I went to Pittsburgh, I'm like, oh, this is what like, what it's like to play in the NHL. This is what it's like to live your dream. Like, we had fun. And, and I think that that's really important to, uh, to have those good vibes like you mentioned.

You got to get away from the game, but you got to have fun with the boys. You got to, um, you got to have some laughs. I mean, and then that translates because when you're going through some tough stretches, I think it's really important to have the right guys in the room that say the right things. Like, you know, you'll be, you know, there's times in my career where it's like you'll lose five in a row. You feel like, oh my gosh, we don't win this game. Everyone's getting traded. Like the coach is me mugging us.

The GM's mean mugging us getting on the plane, off the plane, on the bus, off the bus. And it's like, you know, you just get this eerie quietness before the game, which isn't really a good feeling either. and then you'll just have a guy chime in, you know, we'll be in Vancouver and it'll be like, well, boys, I mean, we travel all the way out here. You should probably, you know, put up for some effort here. You know, just to kind of break the ice guys, like, yeah, you know, maybe we should, yeah, let's try to, you know, tire skates up a little tighter tonight, you know, let's get go, you just break the ice, like keep it, you laugh about it.

You have fun with it. You can't take it too seriously. I think that gets the best results. It certainly hasn't vagues in a couple other teams as well. well and it is a great result for us having you on the show Mike I look forward to the video of you breaking down this interview and and you know going back and forth on Russo going you see Russo's not engaged here and then Jesse did this and Rob did it we very much look forward to it I don't know if it'll get 1.2 million views but it should be fun thanks for doing this Mike really appreciate it

awesome guys anytime Mike Rupp analyst on the NHL network and Twitter superstar after the break hey and by the way Rob if you want to hear more of Mike grew up. I did a Winter Classic podcast with him last year. That was fabulous. He talks about his time with the Danbury Trashers. And he is now, as we just saw, a multimedia star. Yeah, that's on his Wikipedia page, by the way, the Trashers. Yeah. And I'm sure that he got just very sensible Toronto Maple Leafs going after him the other day. Leaf fans are calm, cool, collected, and only think logically. Yeah. My first job in broadcasting was screening Leaf calls. after Saturday night games on the Fan 590 Toronto.

So trust me, I'm being very, very facetious. After the break, rapid fire. Don't go anywhere. All right, guys, my favorite time of the show and yours, rapid fire. I'm going to give you a bunch of topics. Give me the first thing that pops in your head. Jesse, I want to start with you on this one. Jack Eichel.

Head back to Buffalo. Not the first time, if you remember the last time he was in Buffalo. He said it was the loudest the place has ever been. It only took seven years of me leaving for the fans to get into the game. what kind of reaction are you expecting tonight? They booed him the entire game. Like not one second of the game, did they not boo Jack Eichel? And that was before he took the shot at them after the game that set the city on fire.

I can imagine it's going to be even worse this time. It's a tough spot for Jack Eichael. We'll see how it plays out. Last game, Buffalo got the win. Alex Tuck scored a goal, obviously involved in that trade. It was a crazy storyline, just everything that, like it was exactly how Buffalo had drawn it up. It'll be interesting to see. I expect him to get booed mercilessly the entire game.

Yeah, now the fans have something to boom about because they're actually pretty good. You know, although, man, I watched that Arizona game yesterday, and that was not a good effort by the, by the Sabres. But I bet, you know, that's going to be part of the charm of Eichael going back. But, you know, Eichael strikes me as somebody that's, you know, not going to care. It's definitely not going to make him, you know, he's not going to crumble to the weight of the fans in Buffalo. I think he's going to come on there and be pretty motivated to keep the, as Jesse just pointed out on the first segment, best team in the league, rock and rolling. It's actually one of my favorite things in not just hockey sports.

I love returning players who the fans hate. It's, I was literally in what was then the Air Canada Center when Vince Carter came back after he was traded for the Raptors. and the boo was not only the loudest boo I had ever heard, it was actually startling. Like the actual first B, like startled me. It was that loud. And I love seeing it.

That's what you pay your tickets to go to a game and express what you want to say. By the way, I'm so old that I covered Vince Carter in high school in Daytona Beach. Haging yourself, Rousseau. You know the first one. You're not supposed to hate yourself. So the Ottawa Senator.

Officers officially put the for sale sign out on the lawn this week. And Ryan Reynolds, yes, that Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool himself, first responded on Twitter just saying, interesting. Then goes on Fallon and confirms, yes, I do have interest in this hockey team. And then was at the Sends Canucks game last night, which I thought was hilarious because he's looking to buy the Sends, but he's from Vancouver. And he was cheering the Sends goals. But your thoughts on, let's be honest,

a movie star wanting to buy the Ottawa senators, Russo. Well, he was on Fallon, as you mentioned, and he mentioned, you know, in a comedic way that he needs to find somebody with deep pockets to help him buy the Ottawa senators. And then, uh, and in that, uh, interview with Jimmy Fallon, he said that he needs to basically find his sugar mommy or sugar daddy. Well, the best thing that came out of this whole thing so far is that Gary Bettman in only the way that Gary Bettman could say, in an almost a condescending way, said yesterday at his press conference. He goes, he was quite articulate on the Tonight Show last night with

Jimmy Fallon that he would be very interested in that he needs either a sugar mommy or a sugar daddy with a lot of money to help him. So one, he got Gary Bettman to say sugar mommy and sugar daddy. So I think that's awesome. But two, I mean, if you know Gary as well as I do at this point, that this point of, like, even buying that this is legit that Ryan Reynolds is going to get in because he's basically coming out and saying, you know, the point of him saying this was like, You're making a big deal about a guy that wants to just come in as a minority owner that needs somebody with deep pockets to help him. And so I don't know if this is going to come into fruition, but it's definitely making for some fun, fun news in Canada's capital. This would be so good for hockey.

It would be so good for hockey. Ryan Reynolds is hilarious. Everyone loves him. His movies are great. He's his, like, if anyone who follows him on Twitter, he is so sarcastically hilarious. And he's just, I feel like the NHL needs this. Even last night, like you mentioned, Rob, they showed him on the Jumbotron. Even the players on the bench, the Senators players were banging their sticks.

Like every, like this is a guy who everyone knows. I feel like it can bring attention to hockey in America, more attention than it gets, especially a team like the Senators. It would be great. And like Michael said, the best thing is it's getting Gary Bettman to say Sugar Mommy and Sugar Daddy. Only Ryan Reynolds can do that. I want this to happen so bad.

And I, yeah, he's probably not going to be the guy with all the money. He's going to be a minority owner if he does do this. But he can be the forward-facing owner. Can you imagine a press conference with Ryan Reynolds talking about what GM they're going to hire? I would pay money. It's pay-per-view. This is must-watch press conferences. Just imagine what could happen.

I mean, it was only what earlier this summer where we had the big athletic, you know, expose on Eugene Melnick and his ownership by Katie Stringy and Mendez and Dan Robson. And you go from this where the morale of this organization was at all-troning the all-time low to now maybe Ryan Reynolds being a owner of your team. I think what a better way to lift the morale of a franchise that was downtrodden. So it'll be pretty, pretty funny. I'm with Jesse on this one, though, for the league. I mean, aside from when Gretzky got traded to L.A.

when, you know, the Stallones and the Tom Hanks of the world were going to show up to games, I find that the NHL has always been behind other leagues in that A-List superstar coolness. you know what I mean where the NBA's got celebrity owners NFL's got celebrity it's it's needed it's it's absolutely needed and yes is he gonna the the piece of his pie is going to be very very small if this thing does come to fruition but even imagine just like the commercials the ads anything like Ryan Reynolds will be on board if I told you last week that they would be talking about the Ottawa senators on the fucking tonight show you guys would have said I'm insane like this is this is a good thing

I want to see it as opposed to just some billionaire coming in and making it as toy and not making it fun. It's like when Matthew McConaughey owned a piece of the effort. It's one of that same way. Sticking with the senators, Chris Neal's going to have his number retired, which is interesting. Can you think of another bottom six forward that should have his number retired by an Anshel club? I mean, you know, he's a fan favorite. And what's the point? It's the honor. It's not necessarily about the great players. Are you in favor of someone like with no disrespect to Chris Neal, but Chris Neal having his number retired, Jesse?

I'll give credit to Greg Wysinski because he tweeted something similar to this and I could not agree more with it. And it's that I'm going to leave it to the organizations to decide whose numbers deserve to be retired because they understand the importance and the significance of players to that organization far more than I do. So while my eyebrows immediately went up, like, who's numbers being retired? I, it's not like, I haven't been to all the games. I don't know what he means to that team in the way that the fans and the organization does. So I think if the fans were in an uproar, it would be legitimately, like, you have an argument of like, okay, maybe this guy shouldn't. But if the fans all agree and the organization thinks, I don't care what line he played on, I don't care how many goals you scored. If he's important enough to the organization, go ahead.

knock yourself out. Yeah, it felt like that more Minnesota wild fans question, Nico Coyvo's number going to the rafter than Ottawa fans questioning Chris Neal, which I think, you know, probably does say something. And I think it was Bruce Garrick that tweeted, like, you have to live in Ottawa to really understand this, you know. You know, the only other part of this to me, though, is it just, it does seem weird. All right?

I mean, let's be on. Chris Wheel, even though I'm sure Ottawa senators will go to their grave telling me I'm wrong, but it's not the most honest player in a day and age where we're talking about head injuries. and, you know, he blew out some knees and things like that. And just, it does seem, you know, he just wasn't the cleanest player. And now you're celebrating that by putting that number up to the rafters and saying that that guy, that nobody should ever wear number 25 again in Ottawa Center's history. It just seems a little peculiar.

But, hey, again, I don't live in Ottawa, and I didn't cover Ottawa. And so, obviously, Ottawa fans love him. I want Ryan Reynolds' take on it. Yeah, exactly. Finally, guys, I touched on this with Mike Rupp, but I want your opinion because it's Sid versus Ovi for the 63rd time. But here's, you talk about peculiar. 2005 was a long time ago, okay, when they first played their first NHL game on the same day,

and here we are, you know, 2022, they're playing each other for the 63rd time. Can you believe they have the exact same amount of points going into tonight's game? 1,423 points. This marquee matchup has lasted a lot longer than I thought it necessarily would. And these two are still getting it done. Is this one of those things that you circle on your calendar and say, I'm watching Sid and Obie tonight. Bruce, I'll start you.

Yeah, still to this day. I mean, they're two of the biggest competitors. Their personal rivalry, I think, was great for the league at their heyday as well. And as you mentioned, I mean, it is unbelievable that they, I mean, just think of what it takes to get the exact amount of points here. how many games were missed by both these guys as well. And to be at this point, it just shows their consistency every single year. They're both playing still at an unbelievably high level.

You know, both their teams are, you know, sort of in that middle of the pack road now. We're going to see at their both at this, you know, ripe age that they are, if they're going to be able to kind of get their teams out of the doldrums a bit. Yeah, I'm pumped for tonight's game. And it's partially the rivalry and the fact that they're both still good. Like this isn't old man, Ovi and old kid Sid, like just being drug along, like, oh, he's still part of the team. No, they're like the best player on their team still or one of the best players on each of their

their teams. And to me, part of why I'm so excited about tonight's game is what Michael said. These teams are not off to good starts. And Sid and Ovi have battled in the playoffs when they were the two most talented teams in the NHL and only one of them can get through. But now they're in a different spot and they're playing for teams that are like, to me, like at crossroads, like are these teams going to be playoff teams? Or are they finally, we've been waiting for both these teams to fall off that cliff with old age for so long. Like, are they finally doing it? I think tonight I'm pumped to see two guys that have competed against each other forever at the top of the heap.

Now they're battling against each other to keep their teams in the fight. I'm excited for it. We'll see who has more career points by the end of the night. It would probably be even. Yeah. What are we working on this week, boys? We'll start with you, Mike. I'm still working on that Jake Middleton piece.

Finish the damn Jake Middleton piece. I know. I mean, part of it is also like, you know, like the team has just been so weird that it's just like, all right, do I want to,

you know, in the middle of two shutout losses in a row throughout this big, you know, really fun feature on him. So doing that, working on this Mike Medano piece. Working on another story that I'll keep a little secret. I'm actually might be infiltrating.

Jesse's beat this week. I'm actually supposed to get down, get together with Kelly McCrimmon. So I might be. be writing about Vegas next week. So, you know, getting together with, since I figured since I'm in Vegas on vacation, I should try to do one work then. And then what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Thanks, boys. We'll see you next week. I want to remind everybody to follow us on your favorite podcast platform. You can leave a rating and a review. It helps us out a lot. Gets the word out about these three knuckleheads to talk hockey every single Wednesday. Remember, you can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcast to get all the bonus content from the entire network.

Was that Gary Batman interrupting my plug? Sugar Mommy or Sugar Daddy. Yeah, you need Sugar Mommy or Sugar Daddy for 99 cents a month. I don't know if you need a sugar daddy for 99 cents a month. And right now you get an annual subscription to the Athletic, just a dollar a month for six months when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. The Atlantic Hockey Show returns Thursday with Ian Mendez and down goes brown for Jesse, for Mike, for Gary Bettman.

needs either a sugar mommy or a sugar daddy with a lot of money to help him. I think those were his exact words. I'm Rob. We'll talk to you next week. See you next Wednesday.